Kolkata Cityscapes

[Suncity]

Here's Kolkata - They say beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder.

BBD Bagh - the original centre of the city.

Seen here - the General Post Office (GPO), Reserve Bank of India.



The South Chowringhee Skyline - the business district

Seen here - Jeevan Sudha, Tata Centre, Everest House






Indira Gandhi Sarani(Road) connects BBD Bagh and Chowringhee..




The Kolkata Strand - along the Hooghly River and the Vidyasagar Bridge.



The River Festival - 2002



The Strand Skyline



The Ranji Stadium at Eden Gardens - 90,000 capacity cricket stadium.





Shahid Minar (martyrs' monument)



Victoria Memorial

[indistad]

It looks like a comfortable place to live in.

Thanks for the pics.

[Thunderflip]

Very romantic and cleaner than Mumbai and New Delhi.

[Hindustani]

more Calcutta streetscape



Gariahat







Now even the narrow alleys of metropolitan calcutta are neat, clean & fully lit.

[Suncity]

Each picture tells a story..

1) The Haze - it's terrible

2) The road - Once they built the flyover, they forgot to fix the road beneath. The company entrusted with the work is a private company! And they haven't been able to do it for over a year now.

Also look at the designed footpath that a shop has made!

3) The well fed Kolkata Police. Only if he worked as well.

4) The shoddiness of the whole place and people walking casually as if its their backyard..

5-6-7) yes the lanes have been improved but remember this was considered the elite area of Kolkata at one time. It was one of the first "planned" areas of the city (before independence). There is no drain outlet which creates water logging.

[Hindustani]

Originally Posted by Suncity

Each picture tells a story..

1) The Haze - it's terrible

2) The road - Once they built the flyover, they forgot to fix the road beneath. The company entrusted with the work is a private company! And they haven't been able to do it for over a year now.

Also look at the designed footpath that a shop has made!

4) The well fed Kolkata Police. Only if he worked as well.

5) The shoddiness of the whole place and people walking casually as if its their backyard..

Suncity.....................on the good side. Check out the latest pics I added to the same post. Even the narrow alleys of metro Calcutta looks neat, clean & fully lit. Atleast thats a good news. atleast the garbage guys are doing excellent job.

[Suncity]

Originally Posted by Hindustani

Suncity.....................on the good side. Check out the latest pics I added to the same post. Even the narrow alleys of metro Calcutta looks neat, clean & fully lit. Atleast thats a good news. atleast the garbage guys are doing excellent job.

Ballygunge is old but a relatively clean place. But I dunno why they built such narrow streets. Even the areas like Jodhpur Park and Lake Gardens (posh areas) have streets which may be in grid pattern but pretty narrow.

The Gariahat Junction has improved a lot but the Flyover construction had created a mess.

[Suncity]

The most famous modern landmark of Ballygunge and surroundings ...

The Birla temple built in Orissan style



And of course there is the lake..



The Mangal Madhav statue..



BTW Hindustani, those pictures you posted were great! They show places which are not seen too often on the net.

[sidney_jec]

Well thanks folks for providing such great pics of kolkata...
at last the leftists have woke up with the alarms of globalization and are now thinking of developing the so called DEAD city(the least they can do)....hope the projects in pipeline wont take a 'LEFT' turn and would be completed (although not in their due course)........

also does anybody has the news about the 10 lane road connecting the city with airport, and also about the 150mtr World Bengal Tower.please do post a message on that

[Hindustani]

Suncity.......................Here is an excellent reason why Indians dont deserve wide streets. So much space in his own lane & his other lane. Would it kill this driver to drive in his own lane & not drive into oncoming traffic.

Maybe calcutta authories knew it from before hand. New Delhi authorities didn't.

[Suncity]

Originally Posted by Hindustani

Suncity.......................Here is an excellent reason why Indians dont deserve wide streets. So much space in his own lane & his other lane. Would it kill this driver to drive in his own lane & not drive into oncoming traffic.

Maybe calcutta authories knew it from before hand. New Delhi authorities didn't.

:-)

Yes, our social and civic sense is almost zero. But the same people behave so nicely aboard (The fear of the fines and law I guess). In India we know we can easily get off by bribing the all too willing cop. And why blame the cop alone? Bribing seems to be the national culture. Did you read the news where they discovered Rs 3 crore (30 million) in cash from one of Mumbai's Income Tax officers! If they raided all top officers of Income Tax, Customs, IAS, IFS, IPS, I think they can recover billions in public cash alone.

[Suncity]

The mess of Kolkata..

This is the heart of the City (where most of the foreign tourists stay). The land value here is in millions. Just a fresh coat of paint would do wonders. But where is the public spirit?

Looking south:



See the contrast of paint (Indian Museum)





Looking North:



The New market - one of the first organized western style markets. Any other city and they would have spent money to maintain it..



The dome of the Roxy Cinema




The Great Banyan Tree in Howrah.. The Botanical Survey of India (a Govt India agency) does precious little to maintain this 250 acre park..



But it's true that Kolkata has improved a lot after the realization that slogans were not leading to anywhere except backwards. Unfortunately, all the development seems to be around the new expansions taking place in the eastern side of the city.



The central part has so much potential for re-development but it isn't getting enough attention.


An example of what can be done..

[Suncity]

Kolkata spends a lot of time doing politcal processions and rallies (democratic rights).

However if the political parties instead of misusing millions of people to "protest" for various useless causes used the same enthusiasm to clean up our streets, it would have benefitted all.

Wasting time and people's money

[Suncity]

Night time in the same area..

[nithin]

the centre doesnt look that bad. It can really be a tourist destination if the painted it!! You were right about that.

[Hindustani]

Originally Posted by nithin

the centre doesnt look that bad. It can really be a tourist destination if the painted it!! You were right about that.

I agree. Those british architectural type buildings are awesome. I think Calcutta will change the most in next 5 yrs. It got great potential. With all the hype surrounding Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, B'lore. In next 5 yrs, Calcutta will be a "comeback city" of India I believe.

[Jai]

That birla temple is beautiful

[Suncity]

Merlin Residency





They are launching Phase II now of the above project.

Merlin Woodland High

[Suncity]

Typical lowrise/midrise apartments that have become popular in all Indian cities including Kolkata..A small sampling

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[Suncity]

Kolkata, Kolkata

The city, once thought dying, is fast becoming one of the most happening places in the country
By Tapash Ganguly
http://www.the-week.com/24nov07/curr...s_article1.htm

One of Bengal’s greatest poets, Jibanananda Das, penned a poem of hope that Kolkata would become a kallolini tilottama (the most beautiful woman in the world). Almost half a century after his death, Das’s poetic exuberance is assuming a tone of prophecy; Kolkata is finally emerging as a most happening city.

Gone is the despondency that engulfed the city following the 1947 Partition which led to an influx of millions of refugees from East Bengal (Bangladesh). Today, to accommodate the city’s burgeoning middle and upper middle class population, new townships are coming up along the eastern metropolitan bypass. At the northern end is Salt Lake City, officially called Bidhan Nagar, with a population of 5 lakh. Adjacent to it is New Kolkata, which when complete, will accommodate 40 lakh people. At the southern end is another satellite township, Baishnabghata-Patuli, where 1 lakh people live.

PIC:

Youngsters at Aquatica, a water amusement park

The geographical expansion of Kolkata is not confined to the eastern bank of the river Hooghly. A huge township is coming up on the western bank, in Howrah, which an Indonesian company has offered to build. Moreover, Kolkata is renewing itself every day, thanks to land developers and building promoters.

To cater to rapidly changing tastes and demands, dozens of shopping malls and plazas have sprung up all over the city, besides innumerable air-conditioned markets, arcades and gardens. Shopping is no more like being in a sweat shop. Rather, it is a pleasure where fast food, piped music and a congenial atmosphere induce people to spend longer hours and splurge. In the bargain, shop owners laugh all the way to the bank.

These changes have not escaped the discerning eyes of Jit Paul, 81—the head of Apeejay Group—who first came to Kolkata from Punjab in 1942 and subsequently made the city the headquarters of his industrial empire. "This is all because of the mesmeric effect of consumerism," says Paul. "Spending habits have changed. People are working harder so that they can earn more and spend more." He says the state government has realised that business must expand and productivity has to improve.

PIC

A jewellery store

Harsh Neotia, 43, managing director of Ambuja Cement, says, "Militant trade unionism is now a thing of the past. Earlier, when I said that the state was ready for fresh investments, my counterparts in other states hardly paid any heed. Of late, I find them paying more attention. Hence, investments are coming in."

The recent prosperity of Kolkata, according to Neotia, is linked with the overall prosperity of the state. In the last two decades, the state has registered a 6 to 7 per cent growth on an average in its gross domestic product, which is much higher than the national average. A huge market has opened up in the hinterland which in turn has accelerated the progress of Kolkata.

PIC

At the Hookah bar

And entrepreneurs are having a field day. Take the case of Tarun Mullick, 44, a scion of the famous but impoverished Mullick family, whose Marble Palace is one of the major tourist spots of the city. Mullick, who was state table tennis champion, spurned job offers from State Bank of India and the Railways. His mentor, Indu Puri, former national champion, advised him to take up business.

So, with just Rs 3,000 as capital he started a business of making raincoats and diary covers. In 1984, he got a big order for nylon bags from Bata Company which turned his wheel of fortune. By 1989, he entered the national market with his Clubb brand of bags. Today, he is a multi-millionaire and employs 60 people in his factory and office.

Higher incomes have fuelled a building boom. Earlier, a salaried person purchased a flat or a house at the end of his career with his life’s savings. Today young men and women are so sure about their future that they buy their flats and pay their loans later. Interest rates have come down from 17-18 per cent to 6-7 per cent. In fact, many young Kolkatans are changing their flats every five years. "The construction industry is the second largest job provider after agriculture," says Sushil Mohta, 41, a building promoter. "Though no survey has been made about the requirement of the city, greater Kolkata needs 50,000 flats every year."

Merlin Projects Ltd, of which Mohta is managing director, recently joined hands with five other major developers to build a ‘city’ within Kolkata. It is the biggest project of its kind in eastern India where four 35-storey towers will have 1,500 apartments, the price of each apartment varying from Rs 20 to Rs 60 lakh. "We have already sold 1,000 flats," says Mohta. "Most of our clients are young Kolkatans."

Once upon a time, cinema and theatre were the only sources of family entertainment. The night life in Kolkata suffered a deathly blow following the Naxal uprising in the late 60s and early 70s. Pubs and restaurants at five-star hotels closed for the day by 10 p.m. And there was no such thing as a discotheque. At that time, most cinema hall owners dispensed with their night shows.

PIC

Youngsters

But now multiplexes are throwing a challenge to cinema halls. To survive, halls are being renovated with a vengeance even as three multiplexes have come up in the past two years. Three more are in the offing. Almost all the major hotels have discos. And the nights are getting longer. Pubs, bars and restaurants rarely close before midni-ght. "The city has shifted gears," says Koena Mitra, a Mumbai-based model who travels to Kolkata often. "Tantra was the only proper chill-out zone at night. But there are so many other options now. Shisha Bar, in particular, I found to be pretty nice. But I am a loyal Tantra follower. It’s the most happening place in the city."

Earlier, for outdoor entertainment, the city had the zoo, the Victoria Memorial Hall and the Maidan—a rather jaded threesome. Now, there are more than a dozen entertainment parks dotting the bypass and other parts of the city. Even the traditional British club culture has undergone a sea-change. Dozens of new clubs have sprung up with all sorts of amenities; money—not pedigree—is the sole criterion for admission.

Travelling after a night out has become easier. In keeping with rising aspirations, the transport system is being overhauled. Potholed roads are out. Flyovers are in.

In the last five years, the state government and the Kolkata Municipal Corporation have worked in tandem to clear bottlenecks. Two new flyovers, besides the four existing ones, have come up and four more are on the way. All trunk roads are being widened.

To enhance mobility, there is the circular railway. Moreover, there are dozens of ferry services connecting Kolkata and Howrah over the Hooghly river, thereby easing the commuter pressure on the Howrah bridge. The new Vidyasagar Setu bridge has further increased connectivity between Kolkata and the districts. Another new bridge is expected to be complete by 2010.

Kolkata has the distinction of having the first underground rapid transit system, the metro, in the country. Set up in 1984, its length was initially 16 km from Tollygunj in south Kolkata to Dum Dum in the north. Now it is being expanded by more than 6 km, to places like Garia and the Netaji Subhas International Airport. Land in Kolkata, take the metro and within minutes you are in the city. Just like in Paris.

However, unlike Paris, Kolkata does have slums, an Indian phenomenon. But even the slums have changed. Dominique Lapierre, the author of City of Joy, described in detail the Pilkhana slum which, till the early 80s, could easily vie with Mumbai’s Dharavi in its poverty, squalor, disease and death. Today, most slums have metalled roads and piped water. Because electricity is easily available, every house has a TV. Motor cycles and scooters are aplenty.

PIC

Models abound

After many decades, Kolkata is taking care of its health problems. Till the end of the 90s, critically ill patients were rushed to Chennai, Vellore, Hyderabad, Mumbai or Delhi. However, in the past few years, more than a dozen specialty hospitals have sprung up which can handle critical cases. Efforts are now on to build a health city at the New Kolkata township with 100 specialty hospitals, hotels and shopping malls. It will be within hand-shaking distance of the airport. "Neither Chennai nor Mumbai nor Delhi has such a big hinterland as that of Kolkata," says Sajal Dutta, managing director of Ruby General Hospital. "We also get patients from Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan."

Till the end of the 90s, thousands of students went to Bangalore or Delhi for admission in engineering and medical colleges as there were only a few in West Bengal. Now, with more than 50 engineering and 10 medical colleges, West Bengal is in a position to offer seats to students from other states.

In sports, Kolkata is now the mecca of cricket and soccer. Former president Jagmohan Dalmiya has turned the Board of Control for Cricket in India into the richest sports organisation of the country in the last ten years. Indian captain Sourav Ganguly has helped Dalmiya in his mission by setting the team on a winning mode. Simultaneously, the East Bengal soccer team under its maverick coach Subhash Bhowmick has not only earned laurels abroad but also placed the club on a firm financial footing.

All these years thousands of young IT specialists were compelled to go to Bangalore, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad and Delhi in search of jobs. This started changing in the late 90s and the early years of the new millennium. Now Kolkata is the fastest growing software technology centre in India with a growth rate of 119 per cent (2001-2003). Growth rates for the nearest competitors for the subsequent period were 46 per cent (Chennai) and 36 per cent (Hyderabad). The IT hub in Salt Lake City has 175 companies and 21,000 employees. "Kolkata’s strength is its low attrition rate, which is embedded in the culture," says Kiran Karnik, president of the National Association of Software and Service Companies. "The state government has been extremely supportive," says Indu Khattar, head of Wipro's Kolkata development centre.

Tollywood, the hub of the Bengali film industry, after decades of commercial degeneration, has turned itself around. "Even those cinema halls that showed only Hindi films are now switching over to Bengali," says Tapan Deb Banerjee, chairman, exhibitors’ section of the Eastern India Motion Pictures Association. Nowadays, Tolly-wood produces more hits than flops. Some of them, made at a cost of Rs 50 lakh, did business worth Rs 12 crore.

Banerjee is not painting an exaggerated picture because producers from Bollywood, Hyderabad and Chennai are now flocking to Kolkata to make Bengali films.

These producers have helped people like Subrata Sen, 40 who has made four feature films in the last four years. He started his career as a journalist with the Ananda Bazar Patrika Group and then moved to The Statesman, Delhi. "But after more than a decade in the profession, journalism lost its charm," he says. He quit and decided to try his luck in films.

His first film, Ek Je Ache Kanya, released in 2000 created history by running for more than 10 weeks in Kolkata theatres. Thereafter, he has released a film every year. "The market for my type of film, which is aimed at sophisticated people, is limited to Kolkata and a few urban centres of the state," he says. But his last film, Hathat Neerar Janya, got a favourable response in some rural pockets. Other talented film-makers include Kaushik Gangopadhyay, Urmi Chakravorty and Argha Kamal Mitra.

Even fashion-wise, Kolkata, a laggard in this aspect, has moved on to the ramp. Designers Sharbari Dutta, Sabyasachi Mukherjee and their ilk have added a depth of colour to the dull, stale life of Kolkatans. Thanks to Sharbari’s efforts, ornaments are now adorning men’s attire.

But who are the new rich who sustain the growth of apartments, shopping malls, plazas, arcades, gardens, beauty parlours, multiplexes, entertainment parks, discos and pubs?

"They are the new generation of independent professionals who earn much more than their parents used to," says Jit Paul.

Finance Minister Dr Asim Dasgupta says two simultaneous developments are responsible for the present affluence. He argues that land reforms initiated by the Left Front government in the late 70s coupled with the empowerment of the rural masses through the panchayat system enhanced the agricultural production several times within a decade. This rural affluence inspired the growth of small-scale units in the unorganised sector. In 2000-01 they numbered 28 lakh, employing 59 lakh people. "Small and medium-scale industries are the backbone of our industrial resurgence," says Dasgupta.

Tushar Kanjilal, a social worker who lived in the Sunderbans, a backward area, offers a different, dark version. "No doubt, a huge amount of money has been pumped into our villages in the last two decades, but the lion’s share has been siphoned off by panchayat and political leaders," he says. These leaders, allegedly, have invested thousands of crores of rupees in and around Kolkata. For Kanjilal, the changes are merely cosmetic. But his is a cry in the wilderness. For the most part, the city is up and running, and the momentum seems unstoppable.

PIC

The four storey Food Pavilion restaurant, at Park Street in Kolkata will open on Diwali.